[Jeff Probst]

This is Hope's Final Tribal Council Thread.

All other Jurors should remain in their own threads. Final 3, remember... this is not for you to address each other, but to talk to Hope. In-fighting amongst the Final 3 should be reserved for the Live Final Tribal Council on Sunday.

Hope, you have until Saturday at 8c/9e to post your statements/questions to the Final 3. Remember not to take up too much of their time as they have 10 other jurors to get to. Please no listing or questions requiring novels for answers. You should post all of your statements/questions in your opening post in this thread. There is a live Final Council on Sunday where you will get to address everyone live about the statements they have made as well ask follow-ups.

[Hope]

Mike,
How do you think the presence of your nipples affected the type of game you played? Explain honestly

[Michael]

Mike,
How do you think the presence of your nipples affected the type of game you played? Explain honestly

It was my secret weapon. My nipples were like a second set of eyes, that’s why it always looks like my nipples are pointed directly at you, no matter where you’re standing.

[Hope]

Mike,
How do you think the presence of your nipples affected the type of game you played? Explain honestly

It was my secret weapon. My nipples were like a second set of eyes, that’s why it always looks like my nipples are pointed directly at you, no matter where you’re standing.

LOL

[Hope]

hello y’all!! each of you guys should be proud to be here. this was such a hard season with players who came to fucking win and you all outlasted 21 of them! thats epic in itself

i have some questions/comments. please feel free to answer them however you want, we could have a convo or you could leave to a paragraph answer, i know you guys have a lot to think about and plenty of questions to answer! id appreciate honesty and authenticity!

LETS GET INTO IT!:D



i’ll start with you matt.
First off Matt, you suck. LOL. Jokes. but kinda actually. Please explain your rude ass attitude to me in our last days together PLEASE. You had a cocky, arrogant attitude as the game progressed because you kept getting overconfident about your own positioning and overly critical about others you felt were lesser players. As the game got darker, you became darker with it. Explain. Also, why would you start a fight with me on my last day in the game like thats just straight stupid shit. Way to send me to the jury with a nasty taste in my mouth. Lol. That fight actually pissed me off 100x more than you voting me out. You were a shitty ass liar that day, I knew you were writing my name down. But I was way more pissed at that fight that made no sense about Mike. Just the tone you were taking and being so petty w/ me LOL like idk you were just so obviously annoyed at having to create a counterplan to my plan to blindside you/mike that you took that frustration out on me. It just felt like I was dealing with an arrogant man. LMFAO. Let’s address that pleaseeeee… And I will say I don’t think it’s the best move to have brought Mike here but I mean you were left with no choice once Sherri won immunity. This cocky attitude of yours triggered me to try and vote you out as well, I didn't want to sit with you at FTC and have you take credit for everything.

As for your game. Me and you were partners in crime at times I felt like, unless Mike’s jury speech is really true and that you were planning on coming here with him to the end no matter what? IDK. But that’s how it felt to me. Therefore, I see your game the clearest out of anybody’s. I respect it a whole damn lot and I see that you maintained agency till the very end, by you and Mike blindsiding Sherri at Final 4 with a 2-2 vote. & I don’t know how on god’s green earth you managed to convince Sherri I was lying to her at 6, because literally Sherri if you’re reading this what I said was 100% true, so I didn’t really appreciate you writing “you told ten too many lies” on my damn parchment girl. Cuz it was the fucking truth LAWL. And also getting Mike on board with the Jess vote, when Mike could have had an easier time securing a win without you here? wow. that was WILD. A strong finish. I know Steph had told me that she went with you at 6 because she believed you when you said you were taking her to F3. Wow. Like you had all these people go with you, it really impressed me. I had a feeling my plan would blow up on me, but the first thing I said in Ponderosa was that I was glad I went out kicking and screaming. Anyways, you’re going to have to really earn the votes of every juror here, but the fight isn’t over just yet. Address the stupid bullshit/puppetmaster syndrome and also give me some inside dets into my blindside, ive been dying to know. Also anything in general you want me to know. I’d love to also know the lengths you went to in hiding your relationship with steph/sherri

let’s go to mike now.

Okay you need to drop the mastermind act. Do you want to know why you’re at the final three, Mike? It’s because I fucked up. I shouldn’t have targeted Matt at 6. Sherri was pretty DUMB and of course ran to him and he was able to smooth it all over with her, and all Matt did was use you to get rid of me, and then he used you to get rid of Steph, and then he would have used you to cut Sherri had she not won immunity. And I knew you would pull some shit at a final four tribal in voting Jess out, the biggest goat? LMFAO!! Like maybe you could have won this thing next to Jess and Sherri. Unfortunately dude, your opening speech wasn’t it at all. “Never been blindsided” LAWL I mean do you think you are like Boston Rob the babysitter my guy, because the rest of your opening speech was filled with failed plans that never saw the light of day due to…wait for it….blindsides.

Part of why the jury I felt really liked you is because you seemed to be playing well from a scrappy, underdog position. I mean if you were always so Best Buddies with Matt SuperFriendship Time #RanShit #Hitmen #CodyDerrick then IDK why the fuck you and Aurora were always begging me to spilt off with you two + Shamar and vote Matt’s ass out LOL. Y’all threw that plan out to me for like two or three votes in a row. But you came into that opening speech like you 4D chessed everyone with this majorly long relationship with Matt. I think Matt turned to you once he got wind of my plan to vote him. Simple as that. He saw you as the golden goose egg to make that happen once me and Alexis were out. Maybe had you been upfront about that and you came in here saying that I’d give you my vote. Maybe let's expand on this friendship with Matt because I hardly heard of it.

finally, sherri.
Hey girl. So you def played a well-rounded game. You had clutch immunity wins, idol finds, and have beaming relationships with everyone on the jury. It’s no wonder everyone was always writing your name! Unfortunately, while I respect your game, I don’t trust a lot of your overall game reads. For starters, you seemed to be severely blind to your own threat level. You were so blind to your threat level, that when I tried warning you about others catching on to it, you called me a liar. And then you joined up with these people who were lying to you and voted me out. LOL That’s how blind you were to things going on. And at one tribal council, when Jeff asked you if you’d be safe without immunity, you said you would have been. LOL. Pretty sure that was when Steph went home, and make not mistake about it: it would have been you leaving had you not won immunity. Why should I vote for someone who savagely decimated my game because of their own bad reads? Really Sherri, without those immunity wins you’d be writing your juror questions right now. Also explain why I should vote for you over Matt and Mike. Explain why challenge wins were the right path for you.


Thanks all. And this was my least savage draft so feel spared. and please know if I think of anything else I will be asking it here.

[Michael]

Never been blindsided

Fair enough, but I would like to clarify what I meant by never been blindsided. Every tribal council I attended, I knew what the result was going to be. On the right side of the numbers or not, I knew what was going to happen. So when I said I was never blindsided I meant it as "never taken by surprise by the result of the elimination" I believe it's important because while I may have been on the outside of the main group, I wasn't blind to what was going on.



I think it's also fairly important for me to talk about my relationship with Matt.

why the fuck you and Aurora were always begging me to spilt off with you two + Shamar and vote Matt’s ass out LOL.

This never happened. The reason I know it never happened is because when you approached me with this idea of a final four of Myself, you, Aurora, and Shamar as a final four I immediately leaked it to both Matt and to Alexis. This was the day that Aurora was voted out. It was about an hour later that Matt came to me saying that you approached him telling him I was trying to make a group to vote him out. That never happened and I have no reason to lie about it. I leaked the same conversation we had to Alexis because I was surprised you didn't want her in as a fifth, so I brought up her name to you and you were a bit dismissive of her being included. I made sure to tell Alexis at the time, but I'm not sure if she actually believed me or not. I think from what she said, she was just very confused that round.


I'll expand a bit more on my friendship with Matt. He was my minute one and the second person I spoke to in the game. We bonded at the very start and told each other everything. Our friendship only grew stronger when we stayed together after the first swap. We helped each other figure out the partner twist and who had who as a partner and were very close chatting every day until we swapped apart. One of the big clues to how close we were is when I sent the idol over to him on Pukaroa at the (I believe) Laura boot.


When we hooked back up at the Merge, we believed it would be best for both of our games if we played from opposing sides to keep each other safe.


I threw Jessica under the bus at the Aurora tribal council, but it was because I was protecting Matt. Matt is the one who told me about You, Hope, and Alexis turning on me. He leaked the chats where you were talking about how "shook" I was when I found out I was the target and was trying to go after you. (which is how I figured out that Aurora was in on it as well). I choose Jessica because 1. I spent the most time with Jessica out of the four of you and 2. Because I thought that Alexis would most likely believe that was Jessica and that would possibly help me dig myself from that hole I was in the middle of falling into


My relationship with Matt was very important because he was the one who leaked that Shamar wanted me out of the game. So when Shamar told me he wanted the vets out (Steph and Jessica) and he ALSO told me that I was safe enough to not use my partner necklace, I knew he was full of . I leaked those chats to Jessica, Steph, and Matt so we'd be able to get the ball rolling on Shamar.


Matt (and Steph, actually) leaked the Alexis vote that was supposed to be a blindside on me. But it was made very clear to me that I wouldn't be able to stop the vote. I decided that I would vote for Sherri as Jess and you told me to because it served me in two ways.
1. It made sure that Alexis didn't get a 6-1 vote and I didn't want her to go out like that

2. it was to also look as if I was "proving my loyalty" to both you and Jess by voting the way you told me to. At the time I was trying to give myself options with working with you in the future. Because I had no one aside from Matt who was expressly loyal to me, so I needed to keep as many doors open as possible.


At the morning of your elimination, Matt and I were originally going to go with the Steph plan that was being fed to us, but decided throughout the day that we didn't like how much you and Jess were going around dictating what you wanted to happen. When you flipped the vote to Matt and me secondary (or perhaps that was just always the plan by you guys but you hadn't let Sherri in on it yet.) Matt and I had already planned on getting together with Sherri and Steph to vote you out.


The final five vote was simple for Matt and I because Matt didn't want to go to the end with Steph and Sherri and I knew that Sherri and Steph were targeting me. Which made it a pretty easy choice for me at least

[Hope]

Never been blindsided

Fair enough, but I would like to clarify what I meant by never been blindsided. Every tribal council I attended, I knew what the result was going to be. On the right side of the numbers or not, I knew what was going to happen. So when I said I was never blindsided I meant it as "never taken by surprise by the result of the elimination" I believe it's important because while I may have been on the outside of the main group, I wasn't blind to what was going on.



I think it's also fairly important for me to talk about my relationship with Matt.

why the fuck you and Aurora were always begging me to spilt off with you two + Shamar and vote Matt’s ass out LOL.

This never happened. The reason I know it never happened is because when you approached me with this idea of a final four of Myself, you, Aurora, and Shamar as a final four I immediately leaked it to both Matt and to Alexis. This was the day that Aurora was voted out. It was about an hour later that Matt came to me saying that you approached him telling him I was trying to make a group to vote him out. That never happened and I have no reason to lie about it. I leaked the same conversation we had to Alexis because I was surprised you didn't want her in as a fifth, so I brought up her name to you and you were a bit dismissive of her being included. I made sure to tell Alexis at the time, but I'm not sure if she actually believed me or not. I think from what she said, she was just very confused that round.


I'll expand a bit more on my friendship with Matt. He was my minute one and the second person I spoke to in the game. We bonded at the very start and told each other everything. Our friendship only grew stronger when we stayed together after the first swap. We helped each other figure out the partner twist and who had who as a partner and were very close chatting every day until we swapped apart. One of the big clues to how close we were is when I sent the idol over to him on Pukaroa at the (I believe) Laura boot.


When we hooked back up at the Merge, we believed it would be best for both of our games if we played from opposing sides to keep each other safe.


I threw Jessica under the bus at the Aurora tribal council, but it was because I was protecting Matt. Matt is the one who told me about You, Hope, and Alexis turning on me. He leaked the chats where you were talking about how "shook" I was when I found out I was the target and was trying to go after you. (which is how I figured out that Aurora was in on it as well). I choose Jessica because 1. I spent the most time with Jessica out of the four of you and 2. Because I thought that Alexis would most likely believe that was Jessica and that would possibly help me dig myself from that hole I was in the middle of falling into


My relationship with Matt was very important because he was the one who leaked that Shamar wanted me out of the game. So when Shamar told me he wanted the vets out (Steph and Jessica) and he ALSO told me that I was safe enough to not use my partner necklace, I knew he was full of . I leaked those chats to Jessica, Steph, and Matt so we'd be able to get the ball rolling on Shamar.


Matt (and Steph, actually) leaked the Alexis vote that was supposed to be a blindside on me. But it was made very clear to me that I wouldn't be able to stop the vote. I decided that I would vote for Sherri as Jess and you told me to because it served me in two ways.
1. It made sure that Alexis didn't get a 6-1 vote and I didn't want her to go out like that

2. it was to also look as if I was "proving my loyalty" to both you and Jess by voting the way you told me to. At the time I was trying to give myself options with working with you in the future. Because I had no one aside from Matt who was expressly loyal to me, so I needed to keep as many doors open as possible.


At the morning of your elimination, Matt and I were originally going to go with the Steph plan that was being fed to us, but decided throughout the day that we didn't like how much you and Jess were going around dictating what you wanted to happen. When you flipped the vote to Matt and me secondary (or perhaps that was just always the plan by you guys but you hadn't let Sherri in on it yet.) Matt and I had already planned on getting together with Sherri and Steph to vote you out.


The final five vote was simple for Matt and I because Matt didn't want to go to the end with Steph and Sherri and I knew that Sherri and Steph were targeting me. Which made it a pretty easy choice for me at least

I distinctly remember one day when I was bugging out about Sherri to Matt, I toyed with the idea of blindsiding her with you. That is when you let me in on potentially breaking off from Matt/Steph/Sherri with Aurora and you, plus Shamar. I remember that being what clued me in on you wanting to work closely with Aurora. I kept it this proposal in my back pocket in case I felt intimidated one day by Sherri or Matt, until I decided to expose it the day of the Aurora vote because I decided I want to progress in the game with Matt. I would have never proposed that idea first seeming as me and Aurora rarely spoke. It wasn't until you pushed that idea on me when Aurora began to chat me more, which I assumed she was doing because you were telling her to. I could have been perceiving this whole thing wrong, but I truly do not remember ever coming up to you and saying I wanted to work with you and Aurora and Shamar it just wouldn't make sense. I just remember telling you my qualms with Sherri as a threat and you giving me that offer.

I see your explanation for your gameplay in the endgame. I considered you out of the loop on the Alexis blindside so I was fooled there. My regret is placing so much in trust with Jess, which I commend you lying so well to her when you needed to, because it essentially was telling me lies too.

And not for nothing, when you say "we didn't like how much you and Jess were going around dictating what you wanted to happen" that's exactly how I felt about Matt, because he was dead set on taking you to final four. I wasn't going to just sit there and follow orders hahaha. God Matt, you're a fucking snake. Definitely not a fan of your messy ass gameplay leaking screenshots like that, makes me feel 100x more justified in targeting your ass at 6. I guess I'm just right now overall turned off by this scooby doo reveal of how you and Matt supposedly ran the show, but your story clearly makes sense. I appreciate the insight.

[Hope]

Matt, whenever you get the chance. More questions

Please explain if it was always your intention to blindside me at 6. Please explain if you were always planning on cutting me and not taking me to 3. From what Mike is saying it sounds like you were always planning on being here with him. Many people's complaints with your game is that you were a gamebot, and I'm not sure how I can't agree with them now knowing you just snaked me that way lmfao you were always pretty okay lets get to the point and talk game, turns out you were always just trying to get me first?

[Hope]

And Mike, please know you could be a pathological liar. You 100% approached me with a Aurora/Shamar/you/me four that would pick off steph/sherri/matt. People will see when the forum is open but you did indeed do that and I won't be tricked into thinking otherwise. Maybe Aurora can chime in here, but I'm pretty sure that's why she was chatting me more towards the end of her game, she expressed wanting that foursome too and I assumed y'all discussed that together. Because no offense Aurora youre epic but I had no intentions in aligning with you at that moment. But I did consider it for a second when it was offered.

[Sherri]

Hey Hope! I definitely appreciate the respect you have from my game and I did expect there to be questions and concerns and some upset on your part. Just to start with, I know all my reads in this game weren't 100% accurate. I know that was a weakness at times, especially towards the end, but I know that and I know many other people in this game had reads that weren't quite right either. With that being said, I do want to clear a few things up and give a bit more of my perspective on all of this.

Firstly, I read your question to Michael and how you didn't appreciate me writing that you told ten too many lies or whatever. Well, that wasn't my parchment. I don't know if someone told you that it was me or you just assumed it was but I didn't write that. I always assumed that was Matt's parchment but I don't know for sure so you're going to have to check in with him.

Now onto the other reads and I do want to defend myself here because you make me sound like a real idiot. Like how could Sherri trust the guys??? How could Sherri think she'd be safe without immunity??? How could she think she wasn't a threat??? As I said, my reads weren't perfect, but I don't think they were nearly as bad as you thought. To start with, I knew very well that I was a threat at that point. Like, of course I did, I heard it from other people and some even said it to my face. That's no secret. I don't recall calling you a liar when you told me that so I'm guessing you're referencing that voting parchment that wasn't mine. The other part of it was that even if I knew I was a threat, I wanted to stay humble. Not get over-confident or big headed about it.

When it came to you, I wasn't 100% sure you were telling the truth that round, but I did think there was a big chance you were. Stephannie and I had been discussing that throughout the day and by the end of the evening I think both of us thought that you and Jess were probably genuine there. However, I was never a one round player. I was never just thinking for this round only and I felt that having you around in the endgame was just not going to be good for me. I know there were times you didn't really trust me during the merge and times where you might have even been after me. There were also times you lied to me like when you booted Reynold. Not to mention that we weren't on either swap tribe together, so it's not like we had gone through a lot of this game together. The way I was looking at things, I didn't feel like I could trust you fully and even if you wanted to work with me there, I didn't trust you beyond that.

Now by the sounds of it, almost every combination in the endgame wouldn't be great for me. Whether you were there or Michael or Matt or Alexis or anyone. People were after me, people thought I was a threat and they didn't want to take me to the end. So when I decided to boot you and stick with Matt, it wasn't just me believing their lies or trusting them blindly or anything like that. I knew full well that I was not getting the whole truth and I also knew there was a chance that things would be turned around on me in the endgame. I went over all these scenarios a lot in my confessional so please don't think for a second that I wasn't thinking about all that. The thing was that at that point, I felt Matt had been more loyal to me than you were. It made much more sense to stick with him there in my mind and while I obviously trusted him more than I should, I wasn't walking around completely blind to everything.

As for the immunities, we'll start by me saying that I thought I'd be safe without that necklace. Well, once again, this wasn't me being completely blind. Of course I knew there was a chance I could still leave, especially in endgame when things are so tight. I'd probably have to go back and look what I said there but it was likely along the lines of 'I'd like to hope and think I'm safe tonight and this will probably go to plan...but you can never be too sure at the endgame and it's better to be safe with immunity'. And once again, I went through all these scenarios in my confessional. Yes, I was blindsided by that vote and my read was off, but it's not like I never considered that it could happen. That they could take out Steph or me without that immunity. In addition to that, me saying that I thought I would be safe was also just optimism. Maybe I was naive at times, but I always tried to keep optimistic in this game and that's not something I feel I should be apologizing for. What I will apologize for is lying to you on the day you died and for making you think I was with you. I was just trying to make sure you trusted me there so things didn't backfire on me (especially with your vote steal in hand). I don't think my bad reads decimated your game either. I made the decision to boot you for my own long term goals, not because I didn't believe you or didn't know anything that was going on.

As for these challenge wins at the end, I know that's always a topic people will dispute and wonder whether someone still deserves a the ultimate win if they made it there by challenges. Here's the thing. Everyone in this game needs to play to their strengths whether that be social, strategic, challenge or whatever. What I do is try to play with the balance. During the endgame, when my strategic moves weren't working out and I couldn't use my social game, I had no choice but to compensate with my challenge skills. On the opposite end of it, when I couldn't win challenges at the start of the merge, I was really relying on my social and strategic skills to pull me through.

The fact that I won and needed to win challenges should not be discounted as a legitimate strategy or game at all. I still worked my butt off to win them and I fought with all I had to get through them. If you've read Liz's thread you'll know that my win in that last challenge wasn't just leaving things to chance. I've also discussed my strategy of how taking out challenge threats like Allie and Alexis opened up the field for me to win challenges. I always knew there was a possibility I would need those wins but it didn't just happen by chance. I just used different skills to help forward my game. I know if it were you who won those challenges or anyone else in the jury, you too would believe you still deserved it and I hope you can see that winning those challenges in no way discredits my game or makes me any less deserving.

Finally, as to why you should vote for me over Matt and Mike? Well it all goes back to that balancing act. While I relied on my social, strategic and challenge skills at different times throughout the game, for the most part they were just focussing on the strategy. They had no big social game to fall back on, no challenge skills they could use. They pushed forward with their strategy by any means necessary, but I don't think it's left them in the greatest position here at the end. Sorry again about everything that went on, but I hope you can respect my game and my motives enough to see that I deserve this the most.

[Hope]

So Matt, was it you who wrote on my parchment that I told ten too many lies? Or Mike. Let's own it boys please

[Hope]

Hey Hope! I definitely appreciate the respect you have from my game and I did expect there to be questions and concerns and some upset on your part. Just to start with, I know all my reads in this game weren't 100% accurate. I know that was a weakness at times, especially towards the end, but I know that and I know many other people in this game had reads that weren't quite right either. With that being said, I do want to clear a few things up and give a bit more of my perspective on all of this.

Firstly, I read your question to Michael and how you didn't appreciate me writing that you told ten too many lies or whatever. Well, that wasn't my parchment. I don't know if someone told you that it was me or you just assumed it was but I didn't write that. I always assumed that was Matt's parchment but I don't know for sure so you're going to have to check in with him.

Now onto the other reads and I do want to defend myself here because you make me sound like a real idiot. Like how could Sherri trust the guys??? How could Sherri think she'd be safe without immunity??? How could she think she wasn't a threat??? As I said, my reads weren't perfect, but I don't think they were nearly as bad as you thought. To start with, I knew very well that I was a threat at that point. Like, of course I did, I heard it from other people and some even said it to my face. That's no secret. I don't recall calling you a liar when you told me that so I'm guessing you're referencing that voting parchment that wasn't mine. The other part of it was that even if I knew I was a threat, I wanted to stay humble. Not get over-confident or big headed about it.

When it came to you, I wasn't 100% sure you were telling the truth that round, but I did think there was a big chance you were. Stephannie and I had been discussing that throughout the day and by the end of the evening I think both of us thought that you and Jess were probably genuine there. However, I was never a one round player. I was never just thinking for this round only and I felt that having you around in the endgame was just not going to be good for me. I know there were times you didn't really trust me during the merge and times where you might have even been after me. There were also times you lied to me like when you booted Reynold. Not to mention that we weren't on either swap tribe together, so it's not like we had gone through a lot of this game together. The way I was looking at things, I didn't feel like I could trust you fully and even if you wanted to work with me there, I didn't trust you beyond that.

Now by the sounds of it, almost every combination in the endgame wouldn't be great for me. Whether you were there or Michael or Matt or Alexis or anyone. People were after me, people thought I was a threat and they didn't want to take me to the end. So when I decided to boot you and stick with Matt, it wasn't just me believing their lies or trusting them blindly or anything like that. I knew full well that I was not getting the whole truth and I also knew there was a chance that things would be turned around on me in the endgame. I went over all these scenarios a lot in my confessional so please don't think for a second that I wasn't thinking about all that. The thing was that at that point, I felt Matt had been more loyal to me than you were. It made much more sense to stick with him there in my mind and while I obviously trusted him more than I should, I wasn't walking around completely blind to everything.

As for the immunities, we'll start by me saying that I thought I'd be safe without that necklace. Well, once again, this wasn't me being completely blind. Of course I knew there was a chance I could still leave, especially in endgame when things are so tight. I'd probably have to go back and look what I said there but it was likely along the lines of 'I'd like to hope and think I'm safe tonight and this will probably go to plan...but you can never be too sure at the endgame and it's better to be safe with immunity'. And once again, I went through all these scenarios in my confessional. Yes, I was blindsided by that vote and my read was off, but it's not like I never considered that it could happen. That they could take out Steph or me without that immunity. In addition to that, me saying that I thought I would be safe was also just optimism. Maybe I was naive at times, but I always tried to keep optimistic in this game and that's not something I feel I should be apologizing for. What I will apologize for is lying to you on the day you died and for making you think I was with you. I was just trying to make sure you trusted me there so things didn't backfire on me (especially with your vote steal in hand). I don't think my bad reads decimated your game either. I made the decision to boot you for my own long term goals, not because I didn't believe you or didn't know anything that was going on.

As for these challenge wins at the end, I know that's always a topic people will dispute and wonder whether someone still deserves a the ultimate win if they made it there by challenges. Here's the thing. Everyone in this game needs to play to their strengths whether that be social, strategic, challenge or whatever. What I do is try to play with the balance. During the endgame, when my strategic moves weren't working out and I couldn't use my social game, I had no choice but to compensate with my challenge skills. On the opposite end of it, when I couldn't win challenges at the start of the merge, I was really relying on my social and strategic skills to pull me through.

The fact that I won and needed to win challenges should not be discounted as a legitimate strategy or game at all. I still worked my butt off to win them and I fought with all I had to get through them. If you've read Liz's thread you'll know that my win in that last challenge wasn't just leaving things to chance. I've also discussed my strategy of how taking out challenge threats like Allie and Alexis opened up the field for me to win challenges. I always knew there was a possibility I would need those wins but it didn't just happen by chance. I just used different skills to help forward my game. I know if it were you who won those challenges or anyone else in the jury, you too would believe you still deserved it and I hope you can see that winning those challenges in no way discredits my game or makes me any less deserving.

Finally, as to why you should vote for me over Matt and Mike? Well it all goes back to that balancing act. While I relied on my social, strategic and challenge skills at different times throughout the game, for the most part they were just focussing on the strategy. They had no big social game to fall back on, no challenge skills they could use. They pushed forward with their strategy by any means necessary, but I don't think it's left them in the greatest position here at the end. Sorry again about everything that went on, but I hope you can respect my game and my motives enough to see that I deserve this the most.

Thank you for this response Sherri! I'll be thinking about everything you've given to me here. I will say that something I admire about your game is that it lacks this Scooby Doo reveal that feels to have clogged up Matt and Mike's game. Mike and Matt seem to be relying on just telling everyone they were each others ride or dies the whole game under everyone's noses, while everyone always knew what game you were playing, and were even scared of it. And, you had every reason to not trust me, I had no plans of taking you to final three because I was for sure scared of you beating me. So I think that's a good read on your part. I'm pretty much living for you kinda crashing the Mike and Matt party here at FTC. Thanks for these insights, and if I think of anything you know I'll say it here.

[Jeff Probst]

Hope what the fuck, no followups.

[Hope]

Hope what the fuck, no followups.

I'm so sorry I had no idea I thought it would be locked once we couldnt follow up I will STFU

[Matt]

i’ll start with you matt.
First off Matt, you suck. LOL. Jokes. but kinda actually. Please explain your rude ass attitude to me in our last days together PLEASE. You had a cocky, arrogant attitude as the game progressed because you kept getting overconfident about your own positioning and overly critical about others you felt were lesser players. As the game got darker, you became darker with it. Explain. Also, why would you start a fight with me on my last day in the game like thats just straight stupid shit. Way to send me to the jury with a nasty taste in my mouth. Lol. That fight actually pissed me off 100x more than you voting me out. You were a shitty ass liar that day, I knew you were writing my name down. But I was way more pissed at that fight that made no sense about Mike. Just the tone you were taking and being so petty w/ me LOL like idk you were just so obviously annoyed at having to create a counterplan to my plan to blindside you/mike that you took that frustration out on me. It just felt like I was dealing with an arrogant man. LMFAO. Let’s address that pleaseeeee… And I will say I don’t think it’s the best move to have brought Mike here but I mean you were left with no choice once Sherri won immunity. This cocky attitude of yours triggered me to try and vote you out as well, I didn't want to sit with you at FTC and have you take credit for everything.
Thanks for this feedback Hope. I'm sorry that it came off as me being arrogant in the game with you. It seemed like you and I were good, and you were calling us Adam/Hannah as a duo, and so I let off steam and vented with you. I definitely considered you a great teammate when we were able to work together genuinely. It seems like some of the comments I made rubbed you the wrong way. You also made comments like it doesn't matter what the tribe wants, we're doing what we want because of my item (before I told you about the idol) and other things that conveyed you felt you were overconfident in the driver's seat. I wasn't trying to be overly critical of other players. It was just part of the game and I expected roasting on all sides but I can understand how I may have come off so I apologize. In terms of our 'fight', I'm surprised you categorized it that way. You threw me under the bus completely and were lying to me in DMs and asked questions in a way that felt like you were gonna copy/paste and send back to others. It just felt like you were disrespecting my intelligence (which clearly is going both ways here). So I think the line I sent you was "Feels like you are trying to incriminate me?" I didn't feel like going along with it all day with you because it was exhausting and there were so many lies being told (like you told Jessica I was going for her? I wanted Jessica in the end... etc). That was the extent of the 'fight' on my part and it seems that set you off. I wasn't about to get into it with you because I was focused that day on surviving and also having Michael survive and I didn't think it was best spending time with you when you had already stabbed me. Bad jury management but it's how I played.

As for your game. Me and you were partners in crime at times I felt like, unless Mike’s jury speech is really true and that you were planning on coming here with him to the end no matter what? IDK. But that’s how it felt to me. Therefore, I see your game the clearest out of anybody’s. I respect it a whole damn lot and I see that you maintained agency till the very end, by you and Mike blindsiding Sherri at Final 4 with a 2-2 vote. & I don’t know how on god’s green earth you managed to convince Sherri I was lying to her at 6, because literally Sherri if you’re reading this what I said was 100% true, so I didn’t really appreciate you writing “you told ten too many lies” on my damn parchment girl. Cuz it was the fucking truth LAWL. And also getting Mike on board with the Jess vote, when Mike could have had an easier time securing a win without you here? wow. that was WILD. A strong finish. I know Steph had told me that she went with you at 6 because she believed you when you said you were taking her to F3. Wow. Like you had all these people go with you, it really impressed me. I had a feeling my plan would blow up on me, but the first thing I said in Ponderosa was that I was glad I went out kicking and screaming. Anyways, you’re going to have to really earn the votes of every juror here, but the fight isn’t over just yet. Address the stupid bullshit/puppetmaster syndrome and also give me some inside dets into my blindside, ive been dying to know. Also anything in general you want me to know. I’d love to also know the lengths you went to in hiding your relationship with Steph/sherri
I want to reiterate that I never felt like the mastermind of the game. I felt like I was a good UTR player who had social and strategic connections and managed my visibility well enough that I could run with anyone in the game no matter who got voted out and what round of the game it was. Unlike what Sherri said, my social game allowed me to have a strategic game as people felt close to me. That's what I think is in the data of the votes with Jessica and Steph after you left. My ideal F4 would've been you, Jessica, and Michael. I would've hoped that Michael lost and went home even though he was my ride-or-die so I could've had his jury vote potentially (sorry Michael!!) but it worked out this way instead. The whole day you left I was like good for Hope going against me she's really good and then I tried to work to counter it. I wasn't trying to be arrogant. If anything I hesitated so long telling you about my idol because I thought you were dangerous. I never questioned your intelligence or meant to be disrespectful. If anything I respected you and the damage you could do. For example, I almost didn't tell you about the idol because I thought it would make me a bigger threat to you but ultimately I decided to because I wanted to go to the end with you and I thought this would be a good way of building trust. My real final three was you and Jessica up until the f6 round when you leaked. I also had a f3 deal with Sherri and Steph implicitly and a ride-or-die deal with Michael. I didn't have other F3 deals that I remember besides fake ones I think you were making that I didn't talk to the people about with. Compared with how it went with Michael, Sherri, and Steph when I told them about my idol rounds before when Liz left, it did not go well with you and so I felt justified in thinking you were unreliable and wanting to cut you. I understand it may not have gone well with you because I had been too sketchy up until then (ie I didn't tell you about it from a long time ago) and you had every right to go after me.

In terms of your vote round: After Alexis left, I told you I had found the idol that night. I did this to build trust with you and because I wanted Sherri or Steph out next. The next morning it seemed that Sherri would go if she lost immunity (me you and Jessica seemed on board). Sherri gets online and she tells me that you had sent her a message the night before being like OMG we need to talk. I was like uh oh. 10 minutes later Sherri tells me that you basically leaked everything to her and were gunning for me. That changed the course of the round. I spent several hours trying to assuage concerns from Sherri and Steph, and Sherri decided she wanted to go with me instead of you because I had been more reliable up until that point. Another crucial aspect of this vote was me making sure Michael was on board and convincing Sherri and Steph that Michael was on board. Both ladies said they didn't talk much game with Michael or at the least seemed hesitant about him. I tried to assuage their concerns while also assuaging Michael. I ran all the numbers in an excel spreadsheet about different scenarios if Steph voted for Michael instead of for you, and I ultimately decided to save myself with the necklace for that reason that night.

I considered coming back to you about what Sherri had told me but it seemed too risky. For example, you and Jessica were asking me questions that were incriminating (Jessica asked me right after you told Sherri about the plan: This final 3 of me you and Hope was your idea right?) and it just didn't make sense to try to work with you both. You had already burned me and it didn't seem like the best idea for my longevity after the F6 round.

In terms of hiding my relationship with Steph and Sherri: I definitely tried to have a lot of options outside Steph and Sherri and also tried to minimize my visibility compared to theirs. I wanted to be able to play the game without them in the game if that happened and so that's how I approached it. I didn't super hide my relationship with them. It was pretty obvious to everyone we were a thing. I did try to hide how much trust I had put in them with my idol though. Michael didn't know they knew about it and they didn't know Michael knew about it. So I did what I could to minimize how close I seemed to different people as it helped me.

What else I want you to know: I think we played similar games. You were always thinking and playing the middle and doing what you needed to do and it was fun to try to get to the F3 with you and Jessica. I don't think I ever said anything personally negative about you, just about you being a literal hurricane in the game with the damage you could do to people's games which made for a really competitive merge.

Matt, whenever you get the chance. More questions. Please explain if it was always your intention to blindside me at 6. Please explain if you were always planning on cutting me and not taking me to 3. From what Mike is saying it sounds like you were always planning on being here with him. Many people's complaints with your game is that you were a gamebot, and I'm not sure how I can't agree with them now knowing you just snaked me that way lmfao you were always pretty okay lets get to the point and talk game, turns out you were always just trying to get me first?
It was not always my intention to cut you at F6 (see above). I was not planning to cut you. I was hoping Michael would be out at F4. I was a gamebot from beginning to end but our conversations were real and I really enjoyed getting to you know personally. It really stung when you turned on me at F6 in a personal sense even though I knew it was part of the game. I wasn't just like an AI.

I will say that something I admire about your game is that it lacks this Scooby Doo reveal that feels to have clogged up Matt and Mike's game. Mike and Matt seem to be relying on just telling everyone they were each others ride or dies the whole game under everyone's noses, while everyone always knew what game you were playing, and were even scared of it.
I disagree with this. My relationship with Mike was just one aspect of my game. I did not rely on any one person or one side to get here. I played the middle between Mike and Sherri and also had longstanding ties to you that were pretty genuine.

So Matt, was it you who wrote on my parchment that I told ten too many lies? Or Mike. Let's own it boys please
You took my vote that night. It wasn't shown. My vote said "Hurricane Hope at it again!! <3" I think this is how rumors get spread.

[Hope]

Thanks for the answers everyone. It's been an epic season playing with you guys. Good luck tonight